Thank you for reading the Weather Watch 12 blog! A January thaw is often welcomed by many to get a break from winter's worst. This year our January thaw included quite a bit of rain. Thursday through 9am Friday included just over a half inch of rain in Milwaukee. And more is on the way.

Showery weather will continue on and off through Saturday morning. Keep an umbrella on standby as Futurecast shows scattered rain showers at 7am Saturday.

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Futurecast 7am Saturday

While a rain shower cannot completely be ruled out from Saturday afternoon through Sunday...that timeframe should provide many dry hours.

Looking ahead the cooler/colder part of the weather pattern is about to return. Remember I use a cycling weather pattern theory called the LRC to make long range projections. Let's take a look ahead to next week.

By Tuesday night and Wednesday a system will push across the upper Midwest. This will send another chance of precipitation toward southern Wisconsin. The WPC surface forecast map shows low pressure near Milwaukee at 6am Wednesday morning.

WPC surface forecast map Wednesday

The GFS surface forecast map at 6am shows a large trough across the upper Midwest and northern Plains. I labeled some of the larger features on the map 1-3. The key feature for us in southern Wisconsin is #2.

500mb GFS forecast January 25

Using the LRC with an estimated duration around 47-49 days shows we are about to enter the part of the weather pattern that produced snow chances in the previous cycle. Going back ~49 days lands us on December 7. Check out the features labeled 1-3 and then look at the map above for the system coming up next week.

As of right now I think rain, a wintry mix, and snow are all possible. If you are a winter or snow lover, the next ~3 weeks should bring colder temperatures overall and increased chances of snow.

500mb archive December 7, 2016

Now time for a goodbye. Today is my last day at WISN and the last day you will find me blogging here. The good news is I am headed to WISN's sister station WJCL in Savannah, GA where I will be the Chief Meteorologist. All my social media accounts will remain the same so please reach out anytime. Thank you for making the WISN 12 weather blog a huge and award winning success!